SiS

In a chipset market already populated by VIA, ALi, and now NVIDIA, Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) may be feeling a bit overwhelmed. If so, it doesn't show, as recent performance indicators have set their recently released 735 chipset on a veritable pedestal by outperforming VIA's KT266 and ALi's MaGiK 1 DDR chipsets.

Because the 735 is a single-chip solution, SiS has been able to implement a special bus between the integrated North and South Bridges. Whereas Intel's Hub Architecture and VIA's V-Link provide for a single, 8-bit, 266MB/s bus between the two components, SiS has included eight such paths, four read and four write threads, that deliver up to 1.2GB/s of PCI bandwidth. According to SiS's benchmarks, this Multi-Threaded I/O Link shines primarily in instances where more than one disk drive is used heavily, as the extra bandwidth provides for higher overall disk performance.

SiS's product roadmap for the rest of the year is straightforward. Until the third quarter, the 735 will spearhead the Socket A front and 635 will cover the Socket 370 market. After that, the multi-chip 740 will emerge for the Athlon, complete with integrated graphics and DD266 support, while the 640T covers the same general feature set for Intel's Tualatin line. Unfortunately, since both chipsets will involve a separate North and South bridge, the Multi-Threaded I/O Link would be a difficult feature to include.

By the end of the year, sources indicate that SiS should be ready with their Pentium 4 solution as well, called 650. Featuring integrated graphics as well as DDR support, 650 could be a step in the right direction in terms of bringing the Pentium 4 down to mainstream acceptance.

For the time being, it will be interesting to see how VIA responds to SiS's 735. With a revised KT266, VIA could potentially surpass the performance of the SiS offering, leaving AMD free to focus on processors rather than the manufacturing of the 760 chipset.

ALi

Another core logic vendor to recently surprise the industry has been Acer Laboratories, Inc., or ALi. With the inception of the MaGiK 1 chipset for AMD's processor line, ALi became established as a valid contender after having been relegated to the value market for the past few years. Now, with a DDR solution for both the Socket 370 and Socket 462 platforms, they are also readying a Pentium 4 chipset, compete with DDR support. Internally named the M1671, ALi anticipates support for AGP 8X as well as DDR memory. Sampling should begin in the third quarter with mass production sometime later in the fourth quarter. Even still, adding competition to the mounting battle between Intel and VIA will only stimulate the development of faster, cheaper products.